


Kicking the Stars Around the Constellation

by EarthsickWithoutYou



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Adventure, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Background Brainy/Nia, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Mystery, Romance, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2019-11-08 16:58:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17985071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EarthsickWithoutYou/pseuds/EarthsickWithoutYou
Summary: When the Legion is threatened by a mysterious villain in Kara's time, she travels to the 31st Century to warn Mon-El and his team of the impending crisis.  As she works with the Legion to solve the conundrum and save their friends who have been struck by a baffling ailment, Kara and Mon-El discover that their feelings for each other are as strong as ever.  But with all the stars crossed against them, can they find a way to stay together at last?





	1. In Flux

“Kara,” Alex sighed, “Leave _some_ of the cookie dough for the actual cookies!” 

She braced her hands on the kitchen island and leveled Kara with her best look of sisterly admonishment, but she couldn’t keep a straight face for long. Kara was standing there nibbling on the sweet snack with an expression of total innocence.

“Oh, no, see this is the _extra_ pack of safe-to-eat cookie dough I bought for myself so that I wouldn’t eat the dough we’re using for your pot luck party cookies,” Kara explained. 

“ _Riggghhht_ , how thoughtful of you,” Alex laughed, returning to her work at the cookie sheet, forming the other pack of dough into reasonably neat little circles. “Baking is so not my forte.”

“Well, I think it’s great that your friends want to set you up with someone nice,” Kara remarked, starting to clean up the counter area as Alex slid the cookie sheet into the oven. “I bet this party will be super-fun!” She winced at her own choice of words before Alex turned around again. “Super,” really? One of these days she was going to full-on slip up and forget her sister didn’t know her secret.

“Yeah, I figure it’s worth a try,” Alex smiled, washing her hands at the sink and then watching Kara thoughtfully as she dried them off. “And don’t you have a date tonight, too?” 

“Uh, yeah, yeah I do,” Kara remembered, reaching for her phone to check her texts. Damn, she’d pretty much forgotten all about Derek, the perfectly polite and sincere-seeming guy who she had met for coffee last week. “We’re supposed to be having dinner and then going to an arcade to play some classic games…”

“Aha! Well, I think that sounds ‘super-fun’, too,” Alex enthused, heading for the living room couch where she plonked down to relax while the cookies were baking. 

Kara followed, her cautiously optimistic expression replaced by one of deep annoyance.

“What?” Alex asked, sitting up straighter and setting her glass of red wine aside.

“I…I just can’t with these dating app guys, Alex. Look at this text.” Kara’s mouth formed a straight line as she passed the phone to Alex. 

Truth be told, she didn’t really care about Derek, and she’d only been going out with him again because she had no good reason not to. She needed to have a social life, she should be trying to find companionship, right? It wasn’t that she believed she had to have another half to make her whole, but sometimes lately she just couldn’t sleep for the gnawing loneliness that took her over. Whether or not she liked it, she had to admit she was a born romantic at heart and she craved love. But nothing and no one she’d been able to find felt like anything approaching that kind of affection, even the hope of it…not since…

“Oh, ew! Seriously!” Alex scowled as she read the text aloud in a fake-deep voice. “ _‘Hi Kara, I really enjoyed getting to know you, but I’ve been talking to someone else for a while and we just decided to become exclusive. I hope you find someone just as down to earth as you are’_? What is he, kidding? Why was he going out with you if he was into someone else enough to be thinking about getting exclusive?”

Kara snuggled deeper into the couch cushions, curling up into a near-fetal position as she groaned. “This is just typical. It’s not even about him. I’m just sick of this whole thing. Just — go into Bumble, look at the messages from my other matches.”

Alex frowned as she flicked through the messages. “ _‘Your pictures make me hot…hope it’s okay to say that’_? Uh, no, not before even meeting, creepoid! Unmatch!”

“Thanks,” Kara mumbled, her voice muffled against the couch.

“ _‘Want to watch a movie on Netflix tomorrow? Winky emoji, fire emoji_ '? And you’ve never met this guy in person either? Like you’re going to Netflix and chill with some guy on the first date?” 

“Unmatch, please,” Kara requested, lifting her face just long enough to take another bite of cookie dough. “Just, seriously, just delete the app, Alex, I can’t take it anymore. Why doesn’t anyone want to fall in love anymore, why doesn’t anyone want to even risk that kind of emotional vulnerability? It’s like everyone just wants to hook up or keep their options open….and ‘down to earth’? Even the halfway almost sorta kinda decent, comparatively, guys can’t get a good read on my personality. I’m obviously not remotely ‘down to earth.’”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked softly, intrigued by Kara’s comment. 

_There I go again._ Kara could have whacked herself upside the head in pure frustration. When she and Alex were together like this, it felt so much like the old them that she kept wanting to lapse back into the sort of talks they could have when her sister knew she was Supergirl. When she could fully confide in Alex, when Alex knew her inside out. Now that they’d altered Alex’s memory, the painful situation was only getting harder to deal with. Kara could only hope it was temporary.

“Umm, just that I’m a dreamer, you know? Part of me is always going to believe in fairy tales and happily ever after, no matter how many times I get slapped down by life. Maybe I don’t wanna come down to earth, Alex. Earth sucks,” she concluded grumpily, taking her phone back as Alex gave her a sympathetic look.

“Hey, I’m sorry. I know it’s hard out there in the dating world. You deserve someone who appreciates you for the wonderful, extraordinary, lovable _dreamer_ you are, Kara.” Alex took her sister’s hand and Kara could have burst into tears. 

She’d had someone just like that, someone who could look into her eyes and know her for exactly who she was, loving every detail of Kara until the bliss between them was incomparable. But he was never coming back. And she had to move on, move on like he had…had he, though?

Kara cleared her throat to ward off a thought tangent that would be better suited for after Alex left, when she could really wallow in her own angst. Solitude was definitely a prerequisite for that kind of bittersweet reverie.

“Why don’t you come to the party with me tonight?” Alex asked, and Kara laughed softly, adjusting her glasses, running a hand over her rumpled hair. 

“That’s okay. I’ll just hang here for tonight, I’m not in much of a party mood.” 

“Alright, but listen, don’t give up hope, Kara. I know there’s a lot of frogs out there, but the right one for you is waiting somewhere, too. He’s out there, I know it.” Alex’s beautiful face was so full of sweetly sincere care and concern that Kara had to look away before she really did start sobbing. 

Even Alex didn’t get it. Yes, he was out there. In the far-flung future, countless years and stars and dreams away. But he wasn’t waiting for her anymore, even though if she was honest with herself, Kara knew no one else would do.

“Thanks, sis,” Kara smiled warmly, pulling Alex into a hug just before the smoke alarm went off.

“Dammit! The cookies!” Alex complained, jumping up and running to the oven, where she removed the tray of blackened fossils and waved away the clouds of angry smoke. Kara paused, stopping her instinct to use her powers to diminish the grey puffs of chocolate-scented disaster floating through the air.

“Screw it,” Alex determined between coughs, “I’m going to the bakery to get a fresh batch and put them in my own platter like I made them.”

She whipped off her apron and smoothed out the pretty, silky navy blouse she wore over skinny jeans. “Are you sure you don’t wanna come with?”

“Nah, I’m okay, really,” Kara insisted, foreseeing her evening all too clearly. She’d probably start out with a weepy old movie like _An Affair to Remember_ , then crawl into bed to cuddle up with a certain soft blue blanket that felt like pure magical happiness. Somewhere in that kind of tragic collapse was the only fragment of wistful joy she could still find in her heart…somewhere in those memories of him that she saved for the times she couldn’t help herself from the surrender.

But only a few minutes after Alex left, a knock sounded at Kara’s door. She set down the tv remote and padded to the door in her pjs and socks, opening it to see Brainy standing there looking anxious and way more energetic than she was at the moment.

“Brainy, what’s up?” she asked tiredly, standing back as he walked in wringing his hands.

“Kara Zor-El, I have come to you because I am in the midst of what can only be termed a serious emergency.” 

“Oh! Do you need Supergirl? Where’s the emergency?”

“No, it is not that kind of of crisis. It is a crisis of the heart.” He rested a hand over his chest and her face relaxed.

“Yeah, we’re big on those around here. Come, have a seat, tell me what’s going on. It’s about Nia, right?” 

As Brainy sat down on the couch, Kara could have sworn he was actually _blushing_. He had it bad for her friend, and the thought made her grin, her mood lifting automatically.

“Indeed. You see, since I began assisting Nia Nal with her training to become a superhero, we have ceased to discuss our planned social engagements, which were admittedly curtailed when I was forced to depart her valentines party sans a single dance, much less a kiss.” Brainy sat stiffly, his hands planted on his knees as he pondered the regretted memory. “I fear that I have fumbled enough times after Nia Nal has repeatedly attempted to _date_ me that our relationship has now been rendered a purely business-like arrangement between cordial acquaintances. And if I do not act now, quickly, I deeply fear that I may soon be relegated to the sector of platonic associates.”

“Ah. The friend zone,” Kara translated, resting a hand on Brainy’s shoulder. “Hey. Breathe. We’ll figure out a way for you to get things back to the romance zone with Nia. If it helps, I’m pretty sure she’s totally crushing on you, but you didn’t hear that from me.”

“Yes I did, you just said it mere seconds ago,” Brainy argued, perplexed. However, she saw the light in his eyes as he processed her reassurance that Nia like-liked him.

“No, that’s just—“ she giggled, “Listen, why don’t you just tell Nia how you feel? Rather than trying to come up with some grand gesture again, just open up to her. She doesn’t need flowers or chocolate or presents, Brainy, she just needs _you._ Trust me, take it from someone who knows.”

Brainy considered her words carefully before nodding. “Indeed, Kara Zor-El, I believe you are correct—I must — I must —“ The words seemed to dry up in his throat as a deep shudder went through his whole body, almost as if he was having a seizure.

“Brainy!” Kara exclaimed, rushing to hold him securely by the shoulders, keeping him upright before he crashed to the floor. “Can you hear me?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, his eyes rolled up in his head and his body went slack in her hands. She did her best, given her limited understanding of his physiology, to check for his vitals, and found that he was alright, but fragile, under the throes of some mysterious ailment. His skin felt icy, beads of perspiration breaking out on his brow as he began shifting back and forth between his human and alien appearances. “We’ve got to get you to the DEO,” she muttered urgently, picking him up and zooming away into the night.


	2. Say I'm Not Alone

“He’s stable,” Alex announced as she and Kara hovered by Brainy’s bed in a medlab at the DEO. “But we’ve got to identify whatever this illness is if we’re going to have a shot in hell at helping him. My people have been over and over our records on Coluan physiology, but there’s no record of any sickness like this on his planet, no suggested cures. By all indications, he shouldn’t be _able_ to manifest these symptoms, this isn’t how they get sick.” She paced, pressing a hand to her forehead as Kara held herself back from comforting her sister. The Supergirl costume she currently wore meant she had to maintain a more distant relationship.

“There’s a way we can help him, and we’ll find it, Director Danvers,” she said warmly and firmly. _We have to._

“Director Danvers?” A young agent asked, popping his head into the room until Alex beckoned him in.

“What is it, Myers?” Alex asked, taking the tablet offered by the agent.

“We received this message a few minutes ago through untraceable origins. But the message itself is clear as day…” He waited nervously as Alex’s eyes eagerly scanned the tablet’s screen.

“Legionnaires, prepare to meet your doom. The end is near, and you will all fall swiftly by my hand.” Alex frowned, looking over at Kara as both of their hearts sank in dread.

“Someone is targeting the whole Legion,” Kara surmised. “That means we’ve got to warn the others.”

“Yeah, we can get a message to Winn in the future to warn the Legion, and in the meantime, we’ve got to figure out who attacked Brainy and how to heal him.” Alex was going into pure warrior mode, her quick intellect racing away to consider avenues of investigation. Kara had always deeply admired those instincts and talents in her sister, but she could sense their paths had to part for now.

“I think I can help with that in a different way while you head up the investigation here and now,” Kara announced. “I’ve got to go there, into the future, talk to the Legion. Find out who their enemies are, who could travel through time and do this to Brainy, what kind of attack this is, and how to fix him. I mean even if they know more about Coluan biology to shed some light on a cure, it’s worth the trip.”

“Worth the trip? Supergirl, are you thinking about traveling to the 31st Century? How are you even going to—“ Alex looked at her baffled.

“I don’t know, but I’m not thinking about it, I’m doing it. I’ll find a way,” she said with total determination. The next thing Alex knew, Supergirl was gone.

*************************************************************************************

“Supergirl, I can understand your urgency on this, but there are some potential red flags about this whole thing which we have to take into consideration,” Lena cautioned as Kara waited impatiently. 

She was almost positive Lena was going to help her, or they wouldn’t be standing in an L-Corp lab right now. And there was no time for these worries, these hesitations, not when some evil mastermind had decided to take out her friends, not when Brainy, Winn, and…and Mon-El were in mortal danger—

“I’m sure there’s about a million red flags, but if we waste time trying to analyze them, our friends could die,” Kara blurted, giving Lena pause.

“It’s not like you to be this hasty,” Lena said thoughtfully, crossing her arms over her typically pristine white blouse and black pencil skirt, her ruby lips pursed. “I know the stakes are high on this one, but what if the villain’s whole goal in this attack is to lure you away from your own time? What if it’s a ruse to get you out of play so that they can enact some scheme that has nothing to do with the Legion? If you think about it, this could even be the Children of Liberty—“

“I know!” Kara nearly shouted, trying and failing to stay calm. Her blue eyes were bright and wild as she took Lena by the shoulders, keeping her hold gentle despite the temptation to shake sense into the other woman, who was startled by her outburst.

“I know, there are a lot of suspicious factors here, and I know the risks. I even know we don’t always see eye to eye and that you don’t fully trust me.” As Kara spoke, trying to keep her voice calmer, Lena’s mouth quirked into a wry smile.

“True. But this isn’t about trust, Supergirl. I just want to be sure this is the right thing to do.”

“You’re a scientist, you know nothing can ever be one hundred percent certain. We live in the grey, Lena. I’ve considered the possibility that this could be a ruse, and my cousin is going to keep an eye on National City for me while I’m away.” Kara watched as Lena’s smile grew, her eyes starting to twinkle with possibility as Supergirl released her, guessing by Lena’s reaction that her friend was softening to her proposed venture.

“Your…cousin. Superman?” Lena asked, tapping her fingers on the table she’d leaned back against with a faux-casual air. Unbeknownst to Lena, Kara knew her kind-hearted, brilliant friend well enough to guess she’d already won this argument.

“Yes. Now tell me, Lena: can you open up a breach to Earth-1?” With every second that passed, Kara was only able to keep the conversation going by trying to block out the feelings of panic that threatened to take her over. She couldn’t think about what might happen if she was unable to save the Legion.

That kind of thinking would be another waste of time she didn’t have. She was _going_ to save them. She was Supergirl and she could do anything. It had never seemed so vital for her to believe that.

“Of course I can,” Lena said in that steady, rich voice of hers, her smile broadening, gleaming with pride.

*************************************************************************************************  
“Ah, another visitor from an alternate Earth,” Sherloque Wells remarked nonchalantly as Kara leaped forth from the vibrant blue breach which had blossomed right in the middle of the STAR Labs cortex. “Très bon, it is just another Tuesday.”

Nora West-Allen, who had been leaning over Sherloque’s work station with an intensely focused look, glanced away from the computer screen to see the blonde woman in a cape who had just burst into their world.

“Uhhh….Dad?” Nora asked, hardly believing her eyes. “Is that…”

“Kara!” Barry darted forward and pulled Kara into a hug as she breathed a sigh of relief. There was something about her friend that always made her feel anchored and safe, no matter what perils they faced. “What are you doing here?” he asked as they pulled back, immediate concern filling his kind eyes at the sight of her anxious face.

“Brainy’s sick,” she confided, “And there’s some mysterious villain who’s gunning for the whole Legion. I need you to take me to their time, to Winn and Imra and M-Mon-El—“ she took a beat to breath, finding that she could barely say his name without stammering, given how upset she was at the thought of how much danger he was in. “I have to warn them, work with them to solve this, just please, Barry. Take me there?”

“Yeah, okay, but Kara, you have to be so careful,” Barry cautioned. “You can’t allow anything you see in the future, any factor of the way the timeline has developed by that point, to influence your actions when you return to this time.”

“I promise, I’ll be careful, I’ll respect the rules of time travel,” she rushed to assure him, feeling the minutes ticking by as if each one was torturously irretrievable. 

“Alright, then,” he said with an affectionate smile. “Let’s go. Hold on tight.”

************************************************************************************************

“This should be the place,” Barry said as he led Kara inside the sleek skyscraper which housed the Legion’s headquarters. “According to all the records of the Legion’s activities that Winn left with STAR Labs and the DEO before he left.”

“Wow,” she marveled, looking around at the high-tech facility, thinking it looked like the inside of a spaceship. On the ground floor alone, workers busily flew around, some of them on hoverboards, detailed plans for various Legion missions projected in the air by at least five different A.I. systems. The facility gleamed in shades of silver and neon lavender, aliens and humans working side by side in peace, and the whole place simply looked so _futuristic_ that despite knowing it should obviously be that way, it was utterly breathtaking to actually see in person.

“Yeah, this is unreal,” Barry enthused, “Even though I definitely can’t tell Cisco about any of the tech we see here.”

“Definitely not,” Kara smirked. “It’s amazing that they just let anyone walk in here, they’re not even concerned about keeping the place confidential or on lockdown…”

“The Legion’s policy is all about total transparency and peace, the way you and I would love to operate, but the world’s not ready for that in our time,” Barry guessed.

“Well, maybe it’s because of your contributions that the world _becomes_ ready for all of this,” a familiar, smoothly eloquent feminine voice piped up. Kara spun around to see Imra smiling welcomingly at her. “We have you to thank for so much, Supergirl and Flash.”

“Imra,” Kara greeted her with a gentle smile, not feeling quite comfortable enough in the presence of Mon-El’s wife to offer a hug. Their complicated friendship meant that she felt a weird mix of emotions when looking at Imra: admiration, jealousy, guilt. Some things never changed. “It’s so good to see you.”

Was it? Yes…no. Rao, she’d almost forgotten how intense these feelings of confusion were, and she hadn’t even seen Mon-El yet.

“And you as well, but I know only an emergency would have made you travel to the future. Please, tell me how we can help.” 

“Well, actually, it’s you we need to help,” Barry explained as Kara nodded.

“Have any members of the Legion fallen ill lately?” Kara asked, watching as Imra’s curious expression shifted to a shocked one.

“Yes, actually. Nura Nal — she began having a seizure yesterday and then fell into a coma. We haven’t been able to pinpoint a cause yet, but we’re working around the clock to solve it. What makes you ask me that?” 

“Brainy’s sick, too. In fact, he has the same exact symptoms,” Kara explained. “We came here to warn you that someone’s targeting Legion members, trying to take you all out one by one. Did you receive any threatening messages when Nura got sick?”

“No,” Imra replied worriedly, “I’m assuming you did, though. Why don’t I call a briefing, get the rest of the core Legion team members assembled so that we can go over these details together?”

“Great idea,” Kara nodded, nervousness filling her until she felt almost dizzy.

What had she been thinking? She couldn’t see Mon-El again, she couldn’t just — _see_ him, look into his eyes, let those feelings hit her like a bolt of lightening as they inevitably would. She couldn’t see him and soak in his presence only to lose him yet again. It hurt so much that she didn’t know how she could possibly handle it. But to save him, she had to go through this. Squaring her shoulders as her tousled blonde locks shone around them, she kept her head in the game.

“Imra, thank you so much. I know it’s crazy to see two time travelers suddenly just…showing up in your headquarters —“ Kara’s polite explanation was interrupted by another Legionnaire.

“In our Fortress,” Mon-El corrected her as she turned to face him, her heart flying to her throat.

Their eyes met, comets exploding as the whole universe seemed to suddenly right itself. That beautiful, burning chaos that enveloped them with the simplest of glances meant that they were right back where they started. Hopelessly in love. Definitively parted by fate. Born under the wrong stars to ever get this right. But Rao, looking at him now felt more right than anything else. It wasn’t the torture she’d expected, not at all. It was paradise, however stolen.

And then he gave a shaky smile, his handsome face just as she’d remembered it, along with her effect on him, despite Imra’s presence, the pressing emergency that had brought her to him, and every reason they needed to get ahold of themselves before they spiraled all over again. 

“That’s what we call it, our Fortress,” Mon-El explained. Her chest rising and falling so very quickly, Kara processed his words and their implication, the way he’d woven so many little traits from his time with Kara into the way he’d formed the Legion. 

She wanted to run her fingers over his face as she fell deeper and deeper into his dark blue gaze, wanted to feel his cheekbones and the softly rough graze of his beard, wanted to press her lips to every inch of his skin and hold him all night long, every night.

“Mon-El,” she chirped awkwardly, her voice sounding too high-pitched in her own ears, and also like it was coming from a billion miles away. “Hi.” 

Her heart was beating so fiercely, she felt like it was going to burst any second, along with her self control and possibly her sanity. No amount of forbidden dreaming or fantasizing — and boy, had she indulged her fair share — could have ever prepared her for this.

“Kara,” Mon-El answered, happiness flooding his face as the realization of her presence fully sank in. Everything in his warm voice suggested irrevocably that the word “Kara” meant coming home for him, too. He walked straight for her as if the rest of the universe could just fall away, melt into insignificance at that moment. Because the moment, finally, was theirs as much as they belonged to each other. Always and never.

And then he took her into his arms.


	3. Is it just part of the process?

“I missed you,” he whispered into her ear, causing a shiver to run down her spine. “So much.”

Mon-El held her even tighter and she squeezed her eyes shut, burying her face in his shoulder, then nuzzling her nose into his neck, breathing in his familiar, arousing scent. Sure, it was the 31st Century, but for some reason Mon-El still smelled like sandalwood soap and felt like his body was made just to hold her. Their hands slid under each others’ capes. She massaged her fingers over his back, just giving into the feeling for one more moment as her touch made him sigh. Rao only knew what they would have done if they were alone, and the thought made her feel hot all over as they reluctantly parted. 

“Missed you, too,” she said softly before summoning all her strength and using it to fuel her common sense. “Imra’s right,” she affirmed more loudly, “We need to dive head-first into this problem, see what we can all figure out together. I think we can find a solution if we pool our knowledge and resources.”

“Let’s hope,” Mon-El smiled, his whole expression soft for another beat before he, too, shifted to business mode. “Come on, we’ll show you the way.”

Seeming weirdly unfazed by Kara and Mon-El’s display of affection, Imra just turned right around and followed her husband as they led the way to the Legions’ meeting room. As for Kara, she couldn’t even believe her own shamelessness, practically giving into the temptation to have an impromptu make-out session with Mon-El, right in front of Imra. Regret and embarrassment rippled through her, along with the residual euphoria of feeling his embrace. 

This was why they had to stay away from each other, or at least it was part of the reason: they could only hold back from one another for just so long. Right or wrong, she knew she couldn’t really control her love for Mon-El; it was almost as perilous to her as kryptonite. But she didn’t want it to hurt anyone else.

But… _were_ Mon-El and Imra still married? She knew they’d parted as friends the last time she’d seen them, but in the time since, had they reconciled? Once he got used to being in the future again, did the loneliness bring him back to Imra’s waiting arms? She couldn’t make any assumptions until she knew more, and this was _definitely_ not the time to be asking these questions.

“This must be weird for you,” Barry whispered in concern as they walked along.

“Shhh! I don’t know what you mean,” she insisted under her breath, prompting him to chuckle.

“Come on, you know I mean you and Mon-El…how did you guys leave things?”

“We _left_ things, Barry.” As they entered the large, circular conference room, where Mon-El and Imra contacted the other core Legionnaires, Kara shot her friend a pleading look, blushing furiously. “Please, I can’t talk about this right now, okay?” Barry shrugged with that innocently concerned look that could make anyone want to open up to him, and she plunged on, desperate for a subject change. “So, you have a daughter? I’m sorry I was in too much of a hurry to properly meet her.”

“Yeah, that’s Nora, she’s Iris and my daughter from the future,” Barry, glowing with pride. “You should definitely get to know her a little when this is all over, she’s pretty extraordinary.”

“Well, if she’s your and Iris’ daughter, she must be,” Kara grinned. Then another thought occurred to her and she paused with a baffled expression. “Uh, also, was that…like a _French_ version of Harrison Wells you’re working with?”

Barry laughed, just as the doors slid open and Winn came in, grinning from ear to ear. “There she is!” he called, giving Kara a huge hug as she clung to him, thrilled at their reunion.

“Oh, it’s so amazing to see you again!” She drew back from Winn to kiss his cheek. “I just wish it was under happier circumstances.”

“Hey,” he smiled, patting her on the back, “We’ll find a way to make the circumstances happy again. Right guys?” He looked around at the others with that trademark Winn Schott enthusiasm. “Come on, am I right? We got this.”

Mon-El gave Winn a high five as Imra laughed, patient with their optimistic antics. 

“And we have one more Legionnaire joining us on comms.” Imra nodded to an A.I. interface over the table, where a young woman’s face appeared, suspended mid-air in an eerie green light indicating she was a holographic representation. As Kara made note of the girl’s delicate, pretty features and dark eyes, she knew it must be Nura Nal, as she bore a distinct resemblance to Nia.

“In her comatose state, Nura is able to draw upon her Naltorian powers to speak with us,” Imra elaborated. “Essentially, we’ve tapped into her dreams, so she’ll be a little woozy and prone to distraction, but at least we can communicate.”

“That’s astonishing,” Kara breathed, staring at Nura’s calm expression as the latter fluttered her long lashes, smiling at the realization that she was talking to her friends again.

“Legion,” Nura murmured, “I can sense you there…I’ve been trying, but I still can’t break out of this strange sickness…it feels like a spell that’s suffocating my consciousness, holding me under water…my dreams are lucid but blank, yielding no clues.”

“Nura,” Kara explained by way of introduction, “this is Kara Zor-El, I’ve traveled here to help you all. Back in my time, Brainiac 5 has also been infected by this illness. Someone is targeting your team, we’re trying to find out who.”

“Kara Zor-El…Supergirl…” Nura spoke slowly, from beneath the heavy slumber that trapped her mind. “It is my honor to meet you. You are…an inspiration to us all…”

Kara shook her head, feeling like way too much of a screw-up today to deal with much more of this praise. On a good day, she was actually pretty proud of herself and confident that she was making the right calls. But there was Mon-El, so achingly close and real, still married for all she knew and certainly not a viable romantic option given that they lived in different centuries. Yet the longing for him filled her senses until she couldn’t think about the right call. Until “right” didn’t even seem to matter.

“Nura, can you see anything right now?” Winn asked, “Anything at all, even if it seems unimportant — it might give us a hint of what’s going on with you.”

“I’m in a plain room,” Nura confided, “barely bigger than a closet. It has beige walls, but there’s no ceiling above me. I can see a pure blue sky, puffy clouds floating by, warm sunshine filtering through them. It’s…almost like my captor took enough pity on me to toss some small creature comfort at me…strange, so strange…there’s a smell, like freshly brewed tea, the taste of chamomile on my tongue. I suppose that smell, that taste, comes from my own subconscious…I love tea…and now I can’t think…I can’t think anything, I—” 

Nura tilted her head to one side as she tried to think harder, focus more, but the effort defeated her ability to connect with the Legion. 

“Nura?” Mon-El asked urgently, but it was too late.

“I can’t—“ Her image flickered once, twice, her lips parting to say something else, but then she cut back out, yanked back into the full oblivion of her coma.

“Her vitals are still stable,” Imra said with relief, her fingers flying across the console to confirm Nura’s safety. “But she’s lost to unconsciousness completely now.”

“Chamomile tea,” Kara mused, chewing her lip, “Maybe that was the last thing she was doing before she came down with the sickness…drinking tea, and that’s why she can smell it in her dream.”

“Someone could have poisoned her drink,” Barry theorized, rubbing his chin in thought. “Maybe that’s how this sickness is transmitted, through a liquid toxin.”

Imra shuddered. “Who could get close enough to Nura to do that, and also perpetrate a similar crime to Brainy in 2019?”

“We should go to Nura’s house, see what we can find,” Mon-El suggested. “I was actually on my way to investigate there before you guys showed up.”

Barry nodded, shooting Kara a quick, meaningful look. “Kara, Mon-El, you should go to Nura’s house. I’ll stay here with Imra and Winn…maybe we can look into past enemies of the Legion, see whose M.O. this attack might fit?”

“Another project we’d just initiated,” Imra said with a determined smile. “And an exhaustive one at that. The Legion has an immense repertoire of enemies, both past _and_ present. We’d be most grateful for your help, Flash, if you can work with Winn to create a shortlist of likely suspects. Meanwhile, I’m going to continue analyzing Nura’s bio-reads, try to understand how this illness is effecting her.”

“Oh-okay then, perfect!” Kara said a little too readily, swinging her hands back and forth because she didn’t know what else to do with them.

“Right,” Mon-El nodded, looking every bit as much the deer in headlights as Kara felt. “I just have to leave instructions with a few people working on other projects, and we can head out.” 

Kara turned to Barry as soon as Mon-El left the room, her eyes blazing with accusation.

“ _Barry!_ ” She swatted his arm and he gave her a fake-angelic look which she knew all too well. He was a calculating, scheming cupid in his own right and he ought to be ashamed of himself! Maybe. Honestly, she was kind of grateful for the interference, but still! Presumptuous, much?

“What?” Barry defended himself, “Someone needs to go investigate Nura’s house, it might as well be you two, since you could use a little alone time to chat, figure out where you stand. Believe me, repression gets you nowhere in situations like this. Taking a risk on confessing your feelings can pay off.” He lifted his hand to display his wedding ring as she rolled her eyes.

“Oh, please! Although…that’s the same advice Alex gave me about Mon-El two years ago,” Kara recalled, giving more credence to his words. Something about hearing that advice from two different loved ones made it get through to her more, made the idea of taking a chance like that seem less insane.

“Your sister is a smart woman,” Barry winked, earning himself another swat. “Hey, watch it with the super-strength!”

“ _You_ watch it,” Kara warned, pointing her finger accusingly at him but failing to hold back a smile. 

Mon-El came back in, quirking a brow at the antics going on between Barry and Kara. 

“So,” he said to Kara a little nervously. “We ready?”

She gave a jerky nod, feeling the sweat on her palms and the hyper throbbing of her heart.

_Yes…no._

_Always…and never._  
***************************************************************************************************

“This is _stunning_ ,” Kara declared when they landed at Nura’s house. It had been a brief flight to get there, one interspersed by distracting glances between herself and Mon-El until she wasn’t sure what was holding her up among the clouds. Was it her Kryptonian powers, or the giddy effect which Mon-El of Daxam exuded over her as easily as breathing?

Nura’s home was just a simple, small enough Cape-style house, periwinkle with white shutters, but the whole place was covered in wildflowers of every color. They spilled out over garden trellises and planters hanging from the house, blossom after blossom of vibrant lupine, flax, coreopsis, and shasta daisies, their petals glossy with the sheen of a fresh watering. 

“It is,” Mon-El agreed thoughtfully. “It’s just like Nura herself, actually…she’s always so bright and hopeful, so in love with nature.” 

“Hmm. You can tell a lot about someone by the places they feel at home.”

He watched Kara’s face as she took in the sight of the lush garden, his sad eyes traveling from her golden tresses to her gorgeous face, remembering with fresh vividness the variations of her brave blue gaze, the deliciously lush look of her pink lips, the irresistible curves of her endlessly graceful body. 

She looked back over at him, full-on and long this time, unafraid, as if she’d been freed by his sudden bout of reckless staring. She might kind of miss his plaid shirts and jeans from the early days of their relationship, but there was no doubt he looked painfully handsome in that Legion costume. Maybe his attire just reminded her of the distance in time stretching between them, making their love so problematic. Still, there was no more room for melancholy right then. 

They both smiled in that burst of naked emotion, understanding that each moment they shared together was to be savored, stored up carefully so that they could cherish these new memories when they were parted again.

Kara bent over to smell a burst of creeping thyme, then ran her fingertips over the fresh purple flowers. “It looks like Nura just tended to this place, but she’s been gone a day.” She looked over her shoulder at the verdant lawn, which also looked healthily moist.

“The whole place is rigged with an automatic system that maintains the garden when Nura’s away, though when she’s home she prefers tending to it herself.” Mon-El punched in a key code and the door slid open, revealing a charmingly shabby-chic decor. 

“Does she have a home security system, too?” Kara asked, heading for the kitchen where a tea kettle sat on the stove. She lifted Nora’s cup and examined it, from the faint lipstick mark still left on one side to the last few sips of pale tan liquid still sitting at the bottom. 

“Yeah, and it was never shut down, but the video footage from yesterday has been totally wiped,” he revealed, walking to a nearby console where the open plan kitchen met the living room.

“I’m hoping I can find a way to retrieve the records so we can get a look at the asshat who broke in here. Whoever they were, they were smart enough to slip right in past the ironclad security system without leaving a trace.”

“Someone invisible, or just a tech genius,” Kara guessed, smiling at Mon-El’s typical vocabulary as she set the mug down. “We should bring this back to Imra, see if she can get any clues from the coffee to trace the toxin, if it _was_ a liquid poison.”

“Definitely,” he confirmed, pausing before he addressed the A.I. to look at Kara again. A dangerous interruption to their work here, but just as unavoidable as blinking. “I’m sorry, it’s just…this time, I _really_ never thought I’d see you again. I can’t believe you’re here.”

“Me either,” she admitted bashfully, coming over to him and sitting on the arm of the couch beside the console. 

“Okay,” Mon-El breathed out, focusing on the task at hand. “Hello, Gideon.”

“Hello, Mon-El of Daxam,” Gideon replied cheerfully as her visage appeared in the air before them. “How may I help you today?”

“Well, we’re trying to figure out who broke in here last night. You seem to have no record of a forced entry?” 

“In fact, I have been running a systems diagnostic to try and derive that very solution,” Gideon said, her expression turning from friendly to irritated. “I resent the violation, both of myself and Ms. Nal’s home. So far, I have been able to pull up the following footage, though it is admittedly still a bit fuzzy.”

Gideon’s face disappeared, replaced by a video feed showing a tall, dark-haired male figure standing outside Nura’s house, his long fingers speedily working the console until the door opened and he crept noiselessly inside. 

“I can’t get a look at his face,” Kara fretted, squinting at the video as she stood and placed her hands on her hips, her temper flaring at the sight of the intruder who had hurt Brainy and Nura. 

“Let me see what I can do,” Mon-El muttered, carefully punching the keys of the console until the video got clearer, the pixellation tightening up to reveal a remarkably handsome fifty-something man with black, wavy hair. As the man slipped into Nura’s kitchen and took a vial from his pocket to pour into her mug, he gave a malevolent, self-congratulatory grin, his cheeks dimpling.

“Oh, _fuck_ ,” Kara groused, making Mon-El flinch in surprise at her almost unheard-of lapse into profanity. 

“You wouldn’t be saying that unless this was bad, like _really_ , really bad,” he guessed.

They watched in amazement as the intruder walked right back out of the house again, tampering with the outside security system panel to delete any evidence of his appearance. Back in the kitchen, Nura had wandered into the room from the back garden and picked her mug up again, sipping from it just once before she began to shake and go into a seizure. Nura just barely managed to use her ring to contact the rest of the team before she lost the ability to speak, her slender body racked with shudders.

“ _Fuuuuck_ ,” Kara fumed, throwing her hands up in the air. “That bastard! How is he literally, like everywhere, every- _when_ , ruining our lives?”

“Okay, I’m so getting the ‘very, very bad’ vibe you’re putting out there, but could you fill me in on the details?” He placed his hands gently on her upper arms and she nodded, her hands flying instinctively to cup his elbows.

“ _That_ is Eobard Thawne, even though for some reason he’s once again wearing Harrison Wells’ face—“

“Oh, I thought he looked familiar for some reason!” Mon-El gasped, “He looks just like H.R. But wait, why would he be coming after the Legion? We’ve never even had a run-in with the guy.”

“Yeah, but I have…he tried to take over the world last year along with an Evil Me and an Evil Oliver Queen…it’s a long story, but no matter how many times we take him down, he just keeps coming back and coming back…” She shook her head as a distinct pain came into her temples. Thawne was a formidable adversary, one she didn’t look forward to facing off with again. There were times when knowing your enemy was a cold comfort.

He heard the panic in her voice and caressed her arms with slow, soothing attention. “Don’t forget, we got this. You and me. We’re a dream team, right? And we’ve got the rest of the Legion, plus your team at the DEO back home—I mean, back in your time,” he corrected himself hurriedly. “Thawne’s not so tough, we can take him.”

“He may be tough,” Kara said, smirking as Mon-El’s words revived her confidence, “But he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. He didn’t anticipate this Gideon system being clever enough to keep a trace of the deleted video feed.”

“No, he most certainly did not, Kara Zor-El,” Gideon bragged with a smug smile as her face reappeared. “And nor does he likely anticipate the speed with which Mr. Allen and Mr. Schott can concoct a theory of his next move based on his previous behaviors. I believe that creating such an algorithm is well within their considerable skill sets.”

“For sure,” Kara agreed, “We should get back there.”

“Yeah, uh—one thing, just—“ Mon-El delayed her before she could turn to fly off again. “Kara, I need you to know something and it’s not because I expect anything or I think there’s some particular reason you _should_ know…”

“Hey, it’s okay,” she sighed, cupping his face, stroking his jaw as his body relaxed into her touch. “You can tell me anything, Mon-El, always. You never need to have a reason to confide in me.”

He took a deep breath and said it quickly, as if letting the words out before he could stop himself, accuse himself of selfish impulses. “Imra and I are divorced.”

Kara could have said anything in reply to that, but anything she said would have just led them back to that cutely awkward repartee at which they so excelled. There was no point this time, stammering out that it was good to know, just for him to blather that he hadn’t meant to be presumptuous. 

They’d come too far together now to resist this moment. And they both knew exactly why he had told her about breaking up with Imra.

Their bodies shot together instinctively, their lips crashing as both of them could finally breathe again, really believe that survival was a viable option. Mon-El’s lips seared into hers as she moaned, parting her lips, and he kissed her more deeply, clasping her face in his hands like the most precious treasure he’d feared he would never touch again. The bittersweetness poured over them as they kissed again and again, reaching dizzying heights of perfection, and then his hands were in her hair, tangled and tugging, her teeth in his lower lip, her tongue lashing across to savor him. Her savior. And she was his.

She remembered, just like their last kiss had been yesterday. She remembered his taste and his body, the way his biceps felt under her roving fingertips, the hard press of his chest to her soft one, how it seemed he had been carved by gods just for her, to meet her every need, to love her. Kara had felt for so long that she must not be meant to be loved romantically, that her destiny was to be a symbol of truth, righteousness and trust for Earth, that her life as Supergirl didn’t allow for the reckless bursts of passion she secretly yearned to experience. Losing Mon-El had only confirmed her suspicion that her road was to be a solitary one.

Maybe nothing had hurt as much as the energy it had taken to tell herself, day after day, that it was fine. She could stand to be alone; she could accept that other people got to hold hands every day with their soulmates, but she just didn't get to have that. Kara didn't think she could muster that energy again now, not even if she tried.

“Nura,” she murmured thickly, drawing back from his mouth only because common sense and duty had somehow manifested from deep in her feverish state of desire.

“Nope…it’s still Mon-El,” he laughed lightly, tears pricking his eyes, reddening them slightly.

Kara giggled and leaned into his body again, her hand gripping the back of his head, playing with his hair, trying not to give into the possessive posture to the point of again forgetting why they were here.

“Goofball,” she accused, “We have to get back to your fortress and figure out how we’re going to stop Thawne.”

“Right, I know. We do. We should. We will,” he continued, and she couldn’t help a grin as she pulled back to admire his flushed cheeks and the moist fullness about his lips. He was way too delicious and she wanted him again and again, here and now. But just like always, other lives depended on them. And they had to get back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay in updating! I wrote this chapter a while ago, but my computer somehow ate it, and I finally managed to retrieve it today.


	4. In a second it all came back

“It’s Thawne!” Barry and Kara shouted in unison as they ran to greet each other back at Legion headquarters. 

Barry’s face was etched in determination and the hate he felt for the man who had wrecked his life in countless ways. Meanwhile, Kara was pale with fear as one look at Barry knocked her out of her dreamy mood from kissing Mon-El and back into the crisis they faced. It was past time to get her head back in the game if she was going to help save Brainy and Nura, plus whoever else would be threatened by Thawne’s schemes...countless thousands if his actions last year were any indication as to the scope of his ambition.

“How did you know?” Barry and Kara asked at the same time as Mon-El, Imra, and Winn clustered anxiously around them.

“Analytics!” Barry declared just as Kara explained, “Gideon!”

“Okay, deep breaths, everybody, take it easy,” Winn soothed, swooping his hands through the air as if physically willing them not to totally freak out.

“Oh, yeah right, Winn, are you even gonna try to pretend this situation is anything less than Defcon-freaking-One?” Kara shot him an accusatory look and he lowered his hands sheepishly.

“You do have a point there,” Winn admitted.

“The last time we saw Thawne, he was trying to literally steal your heart and give it to Evil You, and God only knows why he was helping Dark Archer and Overgirl in the first place,” Barry fretted. 

“ _What?_ ” Mon-El asked, immediately flooded with rage towards Thawne and protectiveness towards Kara. It was an idiotic but unshakable instinct, the desire to put his far weaker Daxamite body between Kara and any danger that might threaten her.

“Thawne’s original goal when Barry first encountered him, of course, was to defeat the Flash, and then once he found himself stuck in the past, to get home to the future at any cost. But clearly his plans have evolved greatly since then,” Imra noted grimly.

“He probably would have helped those Nazi bastards to conquer the world, right before he killed them and stole the dictatorship right out from under them,” Barry theorized.

“What?” Mon-El repeated testily, still back on the earlier revelation. “He tried to take out your _heart_?” He stared into Kara’s face with a desperate sadness, crestfallen that he hadn’t been there to save her from enduring such a horrible ordeal. 

“Mon-El, it’s alright,” Kara sighed, cupping his elbows until his body relaxed slightly. “He didn’t get too far.”

“He got far enough,” Barry insisted, “And whatever the hell he’s up to now, he’ll stop at nothing--”

Winn looked quizzically at everyone, and then back to Imra. “Do you think it’s too soon for me to try again with the whole ‘let’s all calm down’ thing?”

“I think we should defeat Thawne the same way we found out about his role in these attacks,” said Imra with her usual cooly unflappable resolution. “Analyze his potential motives until we can understand where he’s getting this poison, how he’s adapting it to target different species’ physiology, and how to create an antidote--”

“Not to mention, how to find Thawne before he attacks anyone else,” Kara put in firmly. “I agree. The source of the toxin might help us figure out why he wants the Legion taken out of play. I’m pretty sure he intended to keep poisoning the rest of you until he didn’t have to worry about any interference in his upcoming shenanigans.”

“Shenanigans?” Mon-el repeated drily.

“Shenanigans,” she repeated with a tiny smile, glad for the chance to inject a touch of humor into the situation and hopefully suck a lot of the unbearable tension from it. 

“I think I can help with that,” Imra suggested, leading them to the lab, where she displayed the results of her latest analysis of Nura’s DNA. “Do you see how the toxin works over the whole brain?” She nodded up at an image of Nura’s brain activity, and Winn let out a low whistle.

“It’s lit up like a Christmas tree from brain stem to cortex,” he marveled. “No wonder the victims go right into a coma -- the impact on their whole ability to form thoughts is immense.”

“So their body shuts down because their brain is inundated with this poison, and then they enter...a prison of Thawne’s making inside their own mind,” Barry mused.

“The entire brain is active during dreams, especially the really deep dreams that are hard to rouse from,” Imra elaborated, her hazel-blue eyes narrowing as she stared at the shades of bright red and orange radiating across Nura’s brain. “It’s something that’s common across all of our biological make-ups, which would have made it easy enough for Thawne to tweak his formula to suit various species of victims. What I want to know is whether Nura can use her abilities to shift the dreamscape now that we know what Thawne’s playing at. I’m going to try and contact her again to that end.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Kara nodded, “Winn can help with that and the rest of us can try to track Thawne down. Do we have any idea what the components of this poison might be?”

“Yes,” Imra said, her proud emphasis tinged in revulsion towards Thawne. “I searched the database and there’s been only one other time any of us have encountered these particular elements. It was in your time, Supergirl, and you were there, too, Mon-El, and even you, Barry.”

Kara had a sudden, uncanny flashback from The Wizard of Oz at Imra’s words: Dorothy’s voice pitched in wonderment, staring at her loved ones as she recalled, “‘And you were there, and you, and you…’”

Something about the whole scenario struck a nostalgic chord in Kara’s heart, not from a bad memory, but from an adventure which had led her and Barry through the absurd to the sublime until they woke finally knowing without one doubt exactly where they each belonged.

That had been what _he_ intended, the mysterious entity who set Kara and Barry dreaming.

“‘It was a place,’” Kara murmured, continuing to quote Dorothy as she fully accepted what was happening, happening _again._ “‘And you and you were there...some of it wasn't very nice, but most of it was beautiful--’”

“Oh, no,” Barry groaned, “It can’t be. But it is, isn’t it?”

“You guys wanna clue the two of us in before we burst with suspense?” Winn asked. 

Mon-El’s thoughtful eyes and furrowed brow showed the same dawning comprehension which the others had already claimed. 

“Music Meister,” Mon-El affirmed, “It fits. In fact, it’s the only thing that _does_ fit. How this poison could trap Nura and Brainy in dreams with an environment designed by Thawne...but how could he possibly harness Music Meister’s abilities? That guy is practically all-powerful.”

“Remember, we thought the same thing about Mxyzptlk,” said Kara, “Everyone has an Achilles’ heel, a Kryptonite.”

Mon-El gave her a fleeting smile as her words ignited a different memory, about a hundred years ago in what now felt like another lifetime: one where they thought that if they could find a way to make their relationship work, nothing external could tear them apart. They’d been so damn naive, she thought. Nothing in this enormous, uncomprehending universe could ever be that certain, and there was no sure form of love to cling to for long before life snatched it right out of your supposedly iron grip.

_”You’re my Kryptonite.”_

“He might be holding Music Meister prisoner. However you hold an extradimensional being of near-infinite power prisoner, that is,” Barry pondered, again pulling Kara from the memories of her time with Mon-El which always seemed to hover, heavy and sweet, when she got around him.

“Thawne’s a genius,” said Winn, “He must have _found_ a way. But our real advantage is, he doesn’t know we’re onto him yet.” He grinned and waggled his eyebrows cartoonishly. 

“We need to get to him, stop him before he ever sees us coming,” Barry concluded.

“For once, we’ve got the upper hand on this creep,” Kara affirmed. “Let’s make the most of it.”

Once they knew what to look for, it was easy enough to have Gideon scan the Earth for Music Meister’s distinctive life signs, and Kara let out an offended sigh once she saw where Thawne had him imprisoned.

“The Fortress of Solitude?” She turned her wide cerulean eyes to Mon-El who answered simply.

“No one goes there much these days. I do, sometimes, when I can stand to be somewhere that makes me feel so close to you.” 

He didn’t elaborate due to the mixed company, but she understood it completely. There were those nights when she _had_ to curl up in the blanket they once cuddled in together, had to look through her shoebox full of momentos of their love, or Mon-El’s annotated copy of Romeo and Juliet, just to survive her own loneliness. But there were other nights when the mere thought of laying a finger on those fragments of happiness made her want to scream.

“It’s a mockery of our ideals, like everything he does,” Kara surmised. “C’mon, guys.”

“I’ll meet you two there,” Barry answered before disappearing in a red streak.

Kara and Mon-El flew to the ice palace in silent solidarity and landed noiselessly just outside it, moments before Barry reappeared beside them, also instantly going into stealth mode.

She knew just which one of the thin crystals to carefully nestle into a perfectly shaped slot, a Kryptonian keyhole. The forcefield at the entrance shut down and the three heroes snuck inside, looking around defensively, anticipating Thawne’s possible appearance at any moment.

Their attempt to remain undetected until they could get their bearings was completely shattered as a loud, familiarly jovial voice pierced the air.

“Oh! It’s _you guys,_ thank goodness!” Music Meister cried, managing with considerable effort to stand within the square, glass cell Thawne had him imprisoned in. He looked pale, clammy, sick, as if there was something about the cell itself that held his powers in check and drained him of energy. 

“I was hoping you’d show up.” He coughed. “Come to pay me back for the favor I did you crazy lovebirds, getting you to admit your feelings...hey, where’s the other lovebird...Daisy?”

“Iris,” Barry reminded him. "We're married now...she's back home."

“And also, shhhhhh!” Kara chided Music Meister. “We don’t need to get caught by Thawne before we can spring you loose from here.”

“You’re still super- _uptight_ , I see, Supergirl,” Music Meister noticed.

“She’s not uptight,” Mon-El insisted, “She’s just trying to--”

“And you’re still hanging on her every word and move. She’s walking poetry to you, isn’t she? Ah, I understand. Nothing’s changed! I love it. It gives me faith again, after the misery I’ve endured at the hands of that unbearable slimeball Thawne.” 

Despite his wan state of health, Music Meister gazed wistfully at Kara and Mon-El, then rested a hand on his heart and sang out with sincere tenderness, “ _You’d think that people would have had enough of silly love songs…_ ”

“Uh, no, let’s just not bring Paul McCartney into it right now, okay?” Barry cautioned, examining Music Meister’s cell and sighing in aggravation. “I can’t find any kind of mechanism to open this thing up.”

“And you won’t, Flash,” Thawne announced in his huskily snide voice, entering the Fortress of Solitude decked out in his yellow Reverse Flash suit, walking with so much swagger that anyone would think this was his hideout by rights instead of just one more thing he’d stolen.

“Surely you’re too clever to think I’d really make it that easy,” Thawne continued as they stared at him aghast. But only for a second.

Kara rolled her eyes and zoomed right at him, only for him to stab her with a Kryptonite dagger.

As the pain roared through her body, Kara hit the icy floor hard, her desperate breaths puffing in the air before her. Mon-El ran to her side, yanking the dagger from her stomach, while Thawne sped away with Barry fast on his heels.

“Typical,” Music Meister remarked disapprovingly. “That Thawne, you guys...I mean, listen, I’m all about redemption. I love helping people find it, every day, through the power and beauty of song, but this asshole? He’s so deadset on flaunting his superiority over Barry Allen, so high on his own nauseating ego, it’s just _ewww_! Any love he does feel for anyone is contaminated by his sociopathic greed until even that becomes unsalvageable. Not even an REO Speedwagon medley could redeem that jerkwad.”

“While he’s treating his ego to another confrontation with Barry, let's get you out of there,” Kara suggested, leaning heavily on Mon-El as she rose again and went to the cell. 

“Stand back,” she told Music Meister just before she shot her heat vision at the cell walls, burning a hole and then stopping before the fiery laser beams could hurt the prisoner. 

“And stay back,” Mon-El added, smashing his fist through the rest of the glass, clearing it away. Kara cauterized the rough edges with her heat vision and Music Meister waited for the residual fumes to clear before he stepped from his cell.

“Ah, freedom! And Holy Moses, it’s cold in here,” Music Meister remarked with a shiver, hugging himself. His as-always dapper attire consisted of a neat black suit clearly not intended to be worn in Arctic conditions.

Kara picked Music Meister up and flew him back to the Legion fortress as Mon-El followed, Barry still hard at work deterring Thawne in the snowy wilderness.

“There, now you’re warm,” she said as patiently as she could, wrapping him up in a blanket as he settled onto a cot in the Medlab. 

The longer he was out of that cell, Music Meister seemed to get stronger, the color coming back into his cheeks as his posture straightened.

“You need to tell us everything you know about Thawne’s plan,” Mon-El added, crossing his arms.

“She’s the one,” Music Meister breathed sympathetically, looking over at the sleeping Nura. “The one poisoned with _my_ blood. He took a lot of it, you know, so he could steal my powers and use them to achieve his icky villain goals. Figured he’d knock all of you guys into a dreamy stupor so he could have this planet for himself. Ever wonder what a man like that would do if he ever actually got what he thought he wanted?” He gave a short, hollow laugh. “How long would his self-righteousness and selfish luxury win out over the spectre of his miserable solitude? I’ll tell you one song Thawne definitely _doesn’t_ need to be exposed to: ‘My Way’ by Sinatra.”

“Ugh, I hate that song,” Kara groused. “How was he holding you prisoner? You’re way too strong to be easy to capture.”

“He built a gun with some kind of crazy dampening ray that actually worked on _me_! It was the last thing I ever expected; I’ve been roaming the universe in the name of l’amor for eons and this bozo comes along with some fancy new trinket and knocks me on my ass, sticks me in a cell made with the same technology. _Not_ cool.”

“Can you help her?” Kara asked, nodding to Nura, but just then the beautiful Naltorian began to subtly shift in bed. 

Nura hummed confusedly, and then her lashes fluttered, her eyes slowly opening. 

“Looks like she’s got the situation well in hand,” Music Meister commented admiringly.

“Indeed she does,” Imra said happily, coming into the Medlab with Winn right behind her. They gave Nura a careful group hug as she hugged them back, beamingly grateful to finally be conscious again.

“As soon as you told me how the dreamworld was made, I could see all the cracks in the paint, every flaw in Thawne’s design scheme,” Nura told Imra. “It was so easy to break through the deception.”

“I love Naltorians,” Music Meister grinned as Nura looked at him in bafflement. “Do you do karaoke?”

“Since Nura’s awake, you need to help Brainy -- Brainiac 5, he’s got the same illness, the same dream coma caused by Thawne’s use of your blood. He’s, he’s in National City, March, 2019--”  


Kara rushed to get the words out as her nerves screamed at her to get Brainy help now. Every now and then she could empathize with how Barry must feel, watching the people around him moving so comparatively slow.

“Say no more, it’s the least I can do after that stunning cover of ‘Moon River’ you pulled off. Now, I know you’ve missed me, so worry not, I _will_ be back,” Music Meister assured her. “Toodles!”

With that, he disappeared with a snap of his fingers, just as Barry sped into the lab and stopped short, still looking overwhelmed with the insane surprises of the day’s adventure. “I just dropped Thawne off in the STAR Labs Pipeline, 2019,” he confided. “I had to put him somewhere, and I couldn’t look at him another second without killing him with my bare hands. At least this way I’ll have time to think before I have to face him, face the decision of what the hell to do with him this time.”

Kara hugged him. “Oh, Barry, it’ll be okay. One way or another, you’ll do what you feel in your heart is best.”

“My heart can be a pretty dark place sometimes,” Barry worried, pulling back as the sight of her rebounded sunny optimism made it impossible not to smile. “I guess it’s a good thing I’ve got my Superfriend to help me find my way through any darkness.”

“Always,” she assured him. “Do you, uh...do you...I mean, when do you wanna go back home to our time?”

Barry saw right through her failed attempt to play it cool about the temptation to procrastinate their return so she could spend more time with Mon-El. 

“Oh, there’s no hurry. I let Iris know not to expect me back for dinner. Like I said, I need time to think, as far away from Eobard Thawne as I can get.”

“A hundred years or so oughta do the trick,” Mon-El suggested, looking over at them from his place beside his fellow legionnaires. “By the way, Flash, Supergirl...meet Nura Nal.”

“It is a profound honor,” Nura smiled warmly.

“I know one of your _somewhat_ distant relatives who would be incredibly proud to hear about how strong and heroic you are,” Kara gushed.

“So what do you say?” Imra asked Kara and Barry cheerfully, the stress from the Legion’s conflict with Thawne dissipating now that things could go back to normal, for the time being anyway. “Can you both stay a little longer? We’ll throw you a dinner party!”

“She throws amazing dinner parties,” Mon-El grinned, but his eyes never left Kara. 

“I do,” Imra replied smoothly. “But it would be even more amazing with you two in attendance.”

Kara looked back and forth between the ex-spouses, taken aback by how friendly they seemed, how it appeared that Imra, though she must know that there was _something_ sparking back up between her ex-husband and Supergirl, bore them not the slightest bit of ill will. And Kara only hoped that she herself could extend the same graciousness to those with whom she shared complicated or broken bonds.

Perhaps Imra had met someone new, or maybe not, but whatever the case, there were only two factors standing between Kara and Mon-El now: _time_ , and plenty of it, for one. And secondly...his dedication to the Legion, his deep sense of obligation, which carried a nobility of purpose which she would never want to take from him.

So what could they do, where could they go from here?

Right now, the air between them seemed to crackle with invisible and magic electricity, and all she could breathe in was the innocent euphoria of their love. If Barry hesitated to face the reality of dealing with his nemesis, Kara was equally willing to put off facing the inevitable goodbye that would once again part her from Mon-El.

“Dinner it is,” she declared eagerly. “Can’t wait.”


	5. Baby it's so real to me, now that it's over

“We’re supposed to be going to dinner,” she laughed against Mon-El’s insatiable mouth an hour later. 

They were making out on his bed, messing up all the nifty, silver-blue futuristic bedding as they rolled over, taking turns pinning each other down and kissing the living daylights out of one another.

“Mmm. Is that tonight?” Mon-El joked, hovering over Kara as they got their breath back, at least temporarily. Then he leaned in to kiss her neck, changing the pace to love her slowly, lingeringly, gliding his tongue over her skin and then gently biting until Kara whimpered, the hot wetness between her thighs enough to make her dizzy.

“Oh! You’re bad,” she sighed, running her fingers quickly over the buttons of his shirt until she could push it back from his shoulders. She was glad they had changed into regular clothes in preparation for the dinner party, Mon-El a white shirt with a navy tie and dark blue trousers, her a pretty white sundress created by the fabricator. It would have been a much longer and more complicated process to peel each other’s costumes off, although the job did have a certain appealing challenge to it, now that she thought about it. As it turned out, the only occasion they'd really gotten dressed up for tonight was each other.

“ _I’m_ bad?” he pouted, looking up at her angelically. “What about you? What is that look on your face? Believe me when I say this, no one should ever be as sexy as you. ‘Fess up, what were you thinking about?”

“Undressing you,” she admitted with an irrepressible smile as she ran her hands over his sculpted pecs and biceps, in love with the way her caress could make him suck in a shaky breath. “In all different situations, all different outfits, just taking your clothes off and seeing you naked. Having you all to myself.” Batting her eyelashes at him coquettishly, she shrugged. “That’s it.”

“See, this is exactly -- you’re making my point for me,” he accused, slipping the spaghetti straps of her dress down off her shoulders, “You’re devilishly naughty, Ms. Danvers, Supergirl, Ace Reporter, Astounding Hero, you are secretly wicked.”

Mon-El’s seductively teasing expression softened into worshipfulness as he pulled her dress gently down, sliding the soft cotton garment off entirely, punctuating almost every inch of bare skin he revealed with a warm, open-mouthed kiss...over her cleavage above her bra, gradually making his way down her smooth stomach and the delicate curves of her hips, until he lightly tossed the dress to the floor and kissed his way all the way back up again.

“It’s your secret,” Kara murmured, eyes rolling up as she gave into his attentions, feeling she could melt away under the sweetly all-encompassing heat between them. “Can you keep it?”

Mon-El lavished his mouth over her calves, her knees and thighs, then pressed one all-too-brief kiss to her pussy through the beige lace of her panties. Kara gasped as he lifted back up to kiss her mouth, his hands busy unclasping the front of her bra.

“Bad,” she accused breathily, staring into his fathomless blue eyes as he smirked. “Very, very bad. How dare you?”

“How dare I?” he repeated saucily, dipping his head to cup and kiss her breasts one at a time, leaving one hand free to part her thighs and slip inside her panties, his finger pressing tentatively to her damp slit. Swirling his tongue around her nipple, he slid one strong digit inside her, beginning to slowly pump as Kara’s breath quickened, mewls escaping her lips like the softest rose petals falling away. “Because you like it when I’m bad.”

She nodded, her hips rising and falling in time with his rhythm as he added a second finger and switched his oral attentions to her other breast. 

“That’s what makes it so good,” she answered, “That’s what makes _you_ sooo fucking good. Please, just come here.” She tugged him up until they were face to face again, his lips pink and full from all of that excessive, divine kissing. “I need all of you.”

“You’re swearing. You must feel really strongly about this,” he said huskily, his hand still planted firmly on her thigh, caressing her skin in slow circles. 

With his other hand, he stroked the wildly splayed blonde locks from her face, watching every tiny change in her expression, not quite able to believe she was really here.

His words were teasing, but he wasn’t kidding around this time. He looked at her like she was the brightest, most resplendent star in an endless night sky, like she was the one who could give him elation beyond measure, and no one else, _nothing_ else would do. 

She saw the reflection of her heart’s most agonizing crisis shining from his loving eyes, and then she thought there was some comfort, even in the bittersweet understanding that for all she knew, this might be the last night they ever got to have together.

“I love you,” he sighed, kissing her mouth gently at first, until she hitched her legs up around him and ground her aching center against his erection. Then he kissed her harder, messily, her trembling fingers working at his trousers’ button and zipper, shoving them down as he sat up just long enough to yank them all the way off, along with his boxer briefs, and throw them to the floor, a far more aggressive treatment than he’d paid her lovely attire.

“Show me,” she begged, and he nodded, sliding her panties off as she lifted her hips to make it easier, her heartbeat thudding hungrily, reverberating through her throbbing core, her whole body wild for him but somehow riveted in a natural coordination with his every move. 

Mon-El groaned, his shoulders twitching with a jolt of pleasure as he slicked his erection against her entrance. He could stand to draw out the anticipation just twice in this manner before he pushed inside her, both of them moaning at the exquisite sense of completion, eyes locked intensely, until they were hip to hip. 

They went on kissing ravenously as he thrust into her deep and hard, remembering all at once the perfect joy he felt at her tight sex squeezing him, her arms around him to remind him she really did feel the same. 

For so long in the early days of knowing her, Mon-El had feared he would be left out in the cold, his sloppy, amateurish love of her rejected simply out of common sense, simply because among every other wonderful quality that defined her, Kara was so, _so_ high above him. How could he be making love to a goddess? It still blew him away. Comets and stars exploding behind her supernaturally bright, completely unforgettable eyes. Guilt, responsibility, self-resentment, and the full, damning fact of a fucking _century_ between them and still he could never get over her, never get past the way she haunted his heart.

“I love you,” he repeated, and she smiled another light year’s worth of beauty at him, flipping them easily so that she straddled him, pressing her hands possessively to his chest and riding him in long strokes that went from slow to feverishly relentless. 

He gazed up at her, his goddess, her face thrown back and contorted with ecstasy, her desire-swollen breasts bouncing. His hands slid from her hips to her thighs, feeling the thin sheen of perspiration on her skin, the tension in her muscles, and he knew. He saw it in the passion on her face, felt it in every keening wail of her voice and the way her sopping sex enveloped his aching cock, over and over. He knew how incessantly she'd fantasized and played back memories of their sex, how she'd masturbated with his name on her tongue and cried when she came, when she was forced back down to earth and shoved back into the despair of her aloneness. He knew because his nights had been just as tormented, as if life without her was a poem with all the words in the wrong order, a broken bone that you reset but found to your deepening daily frustration would never fully heal. 

She arched her back as she came with a helpless cry of pleasure so powerful that it almost hurt, but she went on fucking him, riding out her orgasm until he moaned loudly, gripping her hips as if she was his safety, his seed spilling hotly inside her as shockwaves of rapture shook his body, rocking him to his core.

Kara eased off of him, immediately curling up in his waiting arms, nestling her face to his chest, their sweat mingled, limbs intertwining out of an instinct so soothing that she could no longer even imagine losing this again.

“I love you, too,” she murmured once the power of speech had returned. 

“Oh, really?” Knowing she was well aware of how strongly those three little words from her lips affected him, he kissed the top of her head and played with her hair, loving this moment of being wrapped up in her affection, even this mutual self-deception of pretending this was anything they got to keep. 

“And I don’t regret missing dinner even though you said it was going to be amazing…” she trailed off, making him smirk again.

“But you’re hungry,” he concluded, and she nodded as he laughed.

“What? We worked up an appetite, you must be starving, too, right?”

Mon-El took one look down at her incomparably stunning face, her smudged lipgloss and flushed cheeks, her bed head and her adorable playfulness. And then he kissed her again, soft and deep, sucking her bottom lip until she moaned, that special moan he’d been dreaming of for months on end.

“I’m famished,” he replied throatily, curving his hand and running his knuckles down her body, grazing her nipple, gliding back down until he squeezed her ass and she pulled him back on top of her. 

“Oh, Rao, ohhhhh,” she sighed raggedly as he ground against her, “Alright, one -- just one more time…”

Two “one more times” later, they stood out on his balcony, eating steamed dumplings provided by the food replicator. The fresh night air kissed their sensitive, sexed-up skin, Kara clad only in a short, baby blue silk nightgown, her hair falling around her glowing cheeks. Mon-El had thrown on a pair of plaid flannel pajama pants that looked like something out of “Mike Matthews’” dresser drawer. Every twinge of nostalgia threatened to return her to her pain, and she knew she couldn’t put if off forever.

“What do you do around here for fun, when you’re off-duty?” she asked, setting down her empty bowl on the small table between them, reaching for her glass of red wine. The drink, which had been replicated to the appropriate strength to make her brain react as any human would, made the blush in her cheeks deepen as she added, “I mean, I don’t know how long you and Imra have been living separately, but--”

“We split up almost as soon as we got back here,” he confided bluntly. “She already knew, Kara. And she was nice enough to actually, fully forgive me with time, to understand what had happened in our marriage, what had happened in my heart to change things. I definitely never deserved her...God knows I don’t deserve you either--”

“No, cut that out, you,” she insisted, stepping closer, setting her wine glass down and cupping his face in both of her hands. “Please don’t think so lowly of yourself, Mon-El, it hurts my heart. Even at your worst, there was always a radiant goodness inside you, just trying to get out past all the problematic ways you were raised, all the confusion that was messing with your ability to just be yourself.”

“You set me free,” he acknowledged self-consciously, averting his gaze with his own rarely glimpsed version of shyness. Mon-El, the brash young Prince of Daxam, seemingly just so indefatigably full of himself...but underneath that protective veneer, he’d wanted more, to be better. He’d been brave enough to nurture aspirations of heroism that clashed entirely with his shallow, aristocratic culture.

“Hey, I think you forget sometimes that you freed me, too.” She tipped his face back towards her with a tenderly pleading smile. “Please know that. Before you, I’d never experienced real love. You brought me a happiness, a partnership I could never even have _imagined_.”

“I imagine us all the time,” he admitted, “Everywhere I go, I think, ‘what would Kara think?’ ‘What would she say?’ ‘How would she look…’” Emotion thickened his voice as he added, “‘How would she look at me?’”

“Like this,” Kara answered, running her thumb over the soft bristles of his beard, “I’ll always look at you like this.”

“Comets,” he said, kissing her, the two of them almost getting carried away again before her ever-fierce curiosity reasserted.

“Wait, tell me, you didn’t finish explaining...what else do you do with your days, your nights? Do you have friends, hobbies?”

“Sure, yeah, I have friends. It may be the 31st Century, but I assure you there are still pub quizzes and dollar taquitos and pitchers of margaritas to be had.” They laughed and he added more reflectively, “I enjoy my life, Kara, it’s not like I’m pining away for you at the expense of living, or to the point of obsession. Well, maybe I’m a little obsessed.”

They chuckled again and she tapped his nose fondly with her fingertip. “That’s okay. Me, too.”

“I guess I’ve just been...restless since we’ve been apart,” he shrugged, gesturing at the sky above them. “Kicking the stars around the constellation, keeping as busy as possible with work so that I don’t have to worry too much about the way my leisure time tends to feel…”

“Like something’s always missing,” she finished.

“What about you?” he asked, looking like part of him didn’t really want to know the answer. “Do you, I mean have you been dating?”

“I’ve tried, but it’s been a string of disasters,” she admitted. “Ranging from the embarrassing to the soul-numbing, disillusioning, losing-my-faith-in-the-good-of-mankind _bleak._ I also tried to tell myself it was just hard getting started again, putting myself out there, looking for love in so many wrong places...Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, _aaaaack!_ But even if I could have just walked into some coffee shop and magically run into some perfect, sweet, honorable guy that couldn’t wait to be my boyfriend, it could just...never compare, you know?”

He raised his eyebrows, prompting her to clarify, “Mon-El, after you, no one else could compare. I’ve been _adored._ I’ve adored you. That just isn’t something that happens. Once in a lifetime, maybe? I guess despite everything we’re lucky.”

“Lucky that we found each other at all,” he sighed sadly, lacing their fingers together.

They both felt it was time to talk about their upcoming separation, but before they could say another word, Music Meister appeared in Mon-El’s room, looking joyfully scandalized by the wrecked state of the sheets and the clothing scattered all over the floor.

“Well, well, well, we’ve been a little frisky, haven’t we?” he said delightedly.

“Oh, really?” Kara complained, “C’mon, man, do you _mind_?”

“I’ll get out of your hair as soon as I tell you the one last piece of sage wisdom I have to impart,” Music Meister replied, and at the more serious expression which his face took on, even Mon-El paused before demanding that the magical entity depart.

Kara crossed her arms, but her face was soft, vulnerably intrigued. “Okay,” she allowed, “What?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all my wonderful readers, hope you liked the new chapters! If you would also like to check out my original novel on Wattpad, I'll include the link here. It's a Victorian Mystery/Romance and has plenty of my trademark romance, humor and adventure. My Wattpad profile is https://www.wattpad.com/user/vmwatson
> 
> See you back here for more Karamel sweetness soon!


	6. More than words can say

“It’s technically two pieces of sage wisdom,” Music Meister clarified. “I’m assuming you’d both rather have me be blunt rather then sending you on another vision quest through movie musical-land to find your own inner truth?”

“How do you know about our inner truths, anyway?” Mon-El crossed his arms. “I think you just take lucky guesses, treating the universe like your own little game, moving the pieces around to see if you can get the outcome you find most entertaining.”

“Eh, kind of? Look, Kara, you’ll get this because you’re a writer. How much easier is it for you to see the mistakes in someone else’s writing than it is for you to catch your own typos and comma splices and such?” 

“Oh, so much easier,” Kara admitted. “It’s like from an outsider’s perspective, all the errors jump right out at me, but when I’m working so hard on one of my own articles, I’m just too close to the mistakes and weaknesses to see them.”

“Exactly! That’s how I do it,” Music Meister declared, approaching Mon-El and whispering into his ear, “You. Stop punishing yourself. Stop living like the only way to prove you’re worth a damn is to deny every happiness you deserve.”

Mon-El looked at him, surprised at the incisive remark, but before he could frame a weak objection, Music Meister held up a hand and shook his head.

“No, no, no, don’t say it’s just not that easy. Spoiler alert, buddy, it is _exactly_ that easy. I only wish someone had been around to tell me that when _I_ needed to hear it, but if the universe chooses to give me another shot at true love, I personally plan to take it faster than Ariana Grande puts new albums out.” He winked, then turned to Kara.

“Well, that’s fast,” she laughed a little nervously. “I guess I never stopped to think you might have made your own mistakes to learn from, despite being this omnipresent observer of all time and space...by the way, would you maybe wanna explain what your whole origin story is? I’d love to do a story on it.”

“I don’t think so, I become a lot less interesting once I cease to be mysterious,” Music Meister claimed. “One thing I won’t let go of is my incessant need to be absolutely fascinating. Now, it’s your turn to listen.” 

He leaned in close to her ear and said softly, “You’re not being selfish by asking him to come home with you. You’re not disrespecting his choices; as his partner, you have the right to be a part of them. By not saying anything about what you want, you’re just making it easier for both of you to stew in your misery, and frankly I can’t take any more of that.”

“Uhhmm, you’ve definitely given us a lot to think about,” Kara admitted. She bit her lip, looking anxiously to Mon-El only to find his gaze on her warm and inviting, and then they both smiled. "Thanks for everything, Music Meister. Our love story really wouldn't have been the same without you."

“My work here is done,” Music Meister enthused, “Oh! By the way, your pals and sister back in 2019 say hi. I told them you’d be back soon.” He winked and then disappeared.

“Kara, you’re my home,” Mon-El blurted as soon as they were alone again. “And more than anything, all I really wanna do is…”

“Come home,” Kara smiled softly, stepping into his open arms, gazing up into his sweet blue eyes. “So come home with me, Mon-El of Daxam. It’s about damn time.”

As they kissed again, dreaming about their future together and eventually landing back in bed for a much-needed, very deep and soothing sleep, Kara couldn’t help thinking that their yellow brick roads had finally converged. Real life was colliding with her long-repressed fantasies until she didn’t have to choose anymore. Right then, resting safe in his arms, it truly felt she could have it all.

 

“So what are you gonna do about Thawne?” Kara asked Barry in concern once they had returned to 2019 and STAR Labs. 

He shrugged, then rubbed his chin. “I still can’t decide. No other prison could hold him, not even ARGUS...I don’t trust he’ll be properly confined unless he’s somewhere I can keep an eye on him.”

“But at the same time, you can’t stand the sight of him,” Mon-El guessed.

Barry nodded. “It’s sickening. He’s too close...I just wanna kill him. All the time.”

“Let me at him,” Iris put in protectively, leaving no one in doubt of her deadly intent. “I’ll gladly put him out of his misery.”

“Mais oui, it seems so simple, Madame West-Allen, until you are staring down at your bloodied hands realizing you may never forgive yourself for such ruthless justice.” Sherloque stood with his back against the workstation behind which Cisco sat, heaving a sigh and shaking his head.

“It’s like there is no solution, man. It’s maddening.”

“Well, whatever else happens, I think Sherloque is right,” Caitlin posited, fidgeting nervously in the chair beside Cisco. “You shouldn’t have to become like Thawne to solve him. It’s too unfair.”

“Maybe some things aren’t solvable,” Kara said thoughtfully. “Maybe some things just _are_. And all you can do is the best you can at any given moment.”

“I just have to find a way to live with it,” Barry sighed as Iris wrapped an arm around him and he leaned into the warmth of her comfort.

“Uh...guys?” Nora piped up nervously, wringing her hands all of a sudden as Sherloque shot her a knowing look and nodded in encouragement. “There’s something I need to tell you about Eobard Thawne. I know a place that can hold him, and even though it’s far away from here, I can promise you he’s totally incapable of escaping it, you know, I mean within reason. We are talking about Thawne after all. The truth is, now that you’ve taken him back here to your time, I’m not sure if you’ve changed his fate in the future where...where I’ve known him.”

“Where you’ve what?” Barry asked, shocked as Nora’s lower lip trembled and tears pooled in her eyes. 

“Dad, I’m so sorry...I wanted to tell you all from the beginning, but I was afraid you wouldn’t understand…”

“Oui, mon cher, mais I believe now is the appropriate time to come clean,” Sherloque suggested as everyone gaped at Nora in surprise at her revelation. “Perhaps then we can finally take care of this Eobard Thawne threat once and for all.”

Once Nora had explained about how she’d first met Eobard in the future, her own time, where he was imprisoned and awaiting execution, and everyone had the chance to try and process what she was telling them, their next thought was whether they had indeed altered the future.

“It’s possible that in a previous version of this timeline, Eobard never came up with this particular plot against the Legion,” Caitlin theorized as Barry and Iris continued to struggle in believing what Nora had revealed. 

Iris watched her husband worriedly, recognizing the storm in his eyes, the confused mixture of betrayal and fear.

“I mean, encounters with Music Meister are few and far between,” she pointed out. “Sure, in this timeline he happened to detect Music Meister, capture him and use his blood to poison Brainy and Nura, planning to take over a world left open by the Legion’s absence. It might not have happened before, and that means --” 

“In my time, he might no longer be imprisoned,” Nora nodded definitively. “It’s my responsibility to put him back and make sure he stays there.”

“Nora,” Iris sighed, but her daughter shook her head.

“Mom, I need to do this. It’s not only my way of making up for what I did, lying to you all about knowing Thawne, but also, I _can_ do this without falling apart inside, without being wrecked by it like you would be, Dad. Please, guys, let me do this.”

“But we were only just starting to get to know you,” Iris objected tearfully. 

“I know, Mom,” Nora managed to say around a soft sob as she collapsed into her parents’ embrace. 

Barry’s temporary hesitation melted away as he hugged Nora close, wishing he could keep her with them forever, but knowing that she’d always have to go home to the future sometime. It seemed now that destiny had always intended it to be under these circumstances, and he trusted her enough instinctively to respect her decisions, even the ones he could never fully understand, like how she’d ever allowed Thawne into her life.

“We’ll miss you so much,” Barry said in sad resignation.

Kara’s heart squeezed for her friends and their daughter as she stood in quietly sensitive solidarity by Mon-El’s side.

“We’ll give you all some time to make the arrangements and say goodbye,” Kara finally announced, her eyes gentle as Barry let go of Iris and Nora just long enough to give her a hug as well.

“Thank you for coming to me,” Barry said as the two friends stepped apart again. “Somehow, your adventure led to the solution of my own, the answer to how to catch and deal with Thawne, the answers about Nora and what she has to do. I know someday I’ll get to hold her in my arms as a tiny baby and start all over again. So it’s…” he sighed, wiping his eyes as Kara squeezed his hands. “It’s okay, you know?”

“I know,” she nodded. “And I’ll always come when I need help, Barry. After all, what are Super Friends for, if not to help write each others’ stories?” 

She smiled over at Mon-El as he gave her that shy little smile again, the one that said _How the hell did I ever get so lucky?_

“Come on, I think there’s some people waiting for us back in National City,” she beckoned Mon-El as they stepped outside the Lab and took to the skies. 

As the open blue air whipped past them and slid over them in feathery clouds, Kara knew she was right where she belonged, with Mon-El by her side. The feeling of being out of joint and lost was gone from her heart, replaced by a pure sense of freedom and excitement.

 

“Why did this yellow-suited speedster fiend see fit to travel all the way from the 31st Century to 2019 simply to poison me, a Legionnaire who might not even have posed a threat to his futuristic wrest for world domination?” Brainy shifted moodily in bed, irritated by the attack as much as he was confused by it.

“Hey, don’t sell yourself short, sweetie,” Nia smiled, sitting beside him on his cot in the DEA’s medbay. “Thawne’s smart enough to know the Legion could have sent a distress call back in time to let you know they were under attack. Making a preemptive move against you, honestly, was kind of...flattering.”

“Yes, well,” Brainy sniffed as Nia failed to suppress a peal of giggles. “I suppose you are right, Nia Nal. Eobard Thawne may be what I could quite frankly term an evil son of a bitch, but he does recognize a truly formidable foe when he sees one.”

“Soooo,” Kara grinned, “‘Sweetie?’” She set the bouquet of flowers she’d brought for Brainy next to the large assortment of similar offerings from other friends. 

There was also an indulgently sized, heart-shaped box of chocolates and a shining red heart balloon which she was pretty darn sure came from Nia. It seemed that Nia had wanted a do-over of their awkward Valentine’s Day non-date, and if the adoring glimmer in Brainy’s eyes as he watched her was any indication, he was over the moon about the fact.

“Yes, Kara Zor-El,” Brainy decreed with prideful exuberance, taking Nia’s delicate hand in his loving grip. “Nia Nal and I have surpassed the dreaded sector of platonic acquaintances at last.”

“The...sector of...platonic...huh?” Mon-El repeated dubiously as Kara laughed.

“The friend zone,” she clarified, tugging the sleeve of his jean jacket, thinking it looked damn fine on him, along with those sexy Mike Matthews glasses, and she could hardly wait to get him home later. 

“We are now: an item,” Brainy said with his usual bombastic zest.

Nia gave another carefree laugh and snuggled closer, caressing his cheek and then kissing his mouth with that tentative pressure which promised plenty more kisses to come when they were alone. 

_It must be something in the air around here,_ Kara mused delightedly. Maybe something as insanely rare and delicately precious as...actual...happiness? She could only hope it went on being even more contagious than the Music Meister’s cupidic antics or the most addictive poison a villain could concoct.

“I love you like crazy, wildcat,” Nia cooed, tapping his nose playfully.

“And I you, my incomparably brave and beautiful Dreamer.” Brainy turned his besotted eyes back over to Kara and Mon-El, adding slyly, “I take it you have decided to terminate your self-imposed exile in the future, Mon-El?”

Mon-El balked at Brainy’s effortless insight into his past struggle. “Jeez, man, did everyone except me know I was torturing myself for no good reason?”

“I mean, yeah,” Alex contributed blithely, entering the room with J’onn close behind her.

“I don’t even know you, and I knew that,” Nia shrugged.

“I figured,” J’onn said with his usual touch of warmly graceful wisdom. “I’ve done my share of self-blaming in the past, so it was easy to see it in someone else. But lately I’m thinking it makes a lot more sense to step back into the light, see what I can still do to make this world a better place.”

“Maybe even find some happiness of your own?” Alex proposed, nudging her beloved surrogate father’s shoulder. “It’s nice out here among the living.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Mon-El grinned, slinging his arm around Kara and sighing contentedly into the fragrant halo of her blonde hair. “Yes, you’re all right. I’m here to stay this time, if Supergirl will have me, that is.”

“The only question is how many times I’m going to have you before we need to take a break for snacks and Netflix,” Kara whispered naughtily.

“Oh...Game of Thrones?” Mon-El asked innocently, prompting everyone else in the room to groan loudly, mumbling variations of “anything but that” and “don’t even remind me!”

“Nah, trust me, you don’t want to see the rest,” Kara beamed. “Know what, honey, I think from now on we should watch stories that end in ‘happily ever after.’”

"To be honest, though, Mon-El," Alex said confusedly, "I thought you and Kara were always an item...but now you and Supergirl look pretty cozy, what's going on there?"

"It's just that--" Mon-El began as Kara fumbled, "Oh! Well, it's a funny story, uhhh...." She scratched her eyebrow pointlessly. "Well, where to begin?"

Alex burst out laughing and folded the astonished Supergirl into a hug. "I know it's you, Kara. I've been having these vivid dreams about you and me as kids, all intercut with memories of you as Supergirl until the images combined. At first I thought these were just nutty recurring dreams, but the longer they went on, the more sure I became. I finally confronted J'onn about it while you were away, and well, you know how hard it is to say no to me when I'm in my interrogation mode."

"Perish the thought," J'onn shuddered. Then he gave a jovially accepting chortle. "Some things are to precious too keep buried. We'll just have to come up with another way to make sure Alex's knowledge of your secret identity stays under wraps."

"I feel like I got you back again!" Kara sighed in relief, bursting into tears and hugging Alex close as her sister whispered, "Me, too. I missed you so much!"

Soon enough, Lena and James arrived to join in the celebration of Brainy’s recovery and Mon-El’s return. They played Charades and ate pizza until the tell-tale sound of distress calls rang across the DEO in typically chaotic style.

“Hey, don’t worry, you two, I got this,” Alex assured Kara and Mon-El, but Kara brushed the crumbs onto her napkin and tossed it merrily into the trash, standing up ready to go.

“I’d love to help out with whatever the latest crisis is,” she said cheerfully. “You with me, baby?”

“Oh, hell yeah,” Mon-El affirmed, setting his glasses aside. “Nothing like a little exercise to get the blood pumping. I’ve missed kicking evildoers’ asses by your side, babe.”

“He says the sweetest things,” Kara enthused, clasping his chin and leaning in for a quick kiss before they bolted back out into the face of every danger and bliss that lay ahead of them.

Meanwhile, somewhere on a not-so-lonely blue moon, very, _very_ far away, Music Meister was well-aware of the pleasant conclusion of the recent events in the lives of his Earth friends. Now, face to face with his long lost lover, he smirked as his psychic abilities allowed him to easily overhear every jubilant development back in National City.

“What is it?” his beautiful, incomparable love asked with a coy smile, cupping Music Meister’s impeccably handsome face and leaning up for another kiss.

“It’s just, people always insist on saying they’ve heard enough of silly love songs,” he sighed, swinging his lover’s hands back and forth in gleeful sense of accomplishment before he predictably broke into song. _“I look around me and I see it isn’t so...oh no…”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I admit that I slightly tangentially felt the need to fix the end of The Flash season 5 while I was at it. Thanks for indulging me! ;))  
> Hope you enjoyed the ending and thanks for reading! <3
> 
> The title of the story is taken from the song “Say I’m Not Alone” by Martine McCutcheon.


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